How Can Business Owners Repair a Damaged Reputation?

November 11, 2025

Does your business have a damaged reputation? In this article, we’ll offer tips for how to turn things around.

A positive reputation is one of the most valuable assets any business can have. It’s also one of the easiest to lose your grip on.

Whether you’re dealing with bad press, negative reviews or sensitive information showing up online, a bad reputation can quickly impact your business’s bottom line and ability to grow.

The good news is that it’s possible to repair reputational damage with the right strategy. With hard work and professional guidance, you can rebuild your brand’s credibility, regain trust with your customers and create an even stronger online image than before.

In this article, we’ll offer a few practical ways to fix and maintain a positive online reputation for your business.

Our content removal services will help clean up your online image fast. Contact us today at 866-601-6803 to learn more.

Hire People Who Will Help You Build a Good Reputation

Hiring employees based on a gut decision or to help out a friend often has more negatives than positives in the long run. Instead, make sure to employ people based on merit and who will fit well with your company. 

What happens if you don’t hire people who are right for the job? Having to let an employee go is never easy. Plus, the backlash can be problematic for your business, leading to a tarnished reputation, negative publicity and lost revenue.

You’ve worked hard to create your brand. Be careful about who you let in, as the consequences could be dire.

Take Online Reviews and Social Media Feedback Seriously

It’s no longer possible to make a first impression in a way that you control. Instead, online reviews and social media posts have become the modern first impression, leaving you at the whim of what others say about your company. Approximately 62% of online shoppers search for a company online if they’re not familiar with it, and very few of them will make a purchase if negative reviews show up.

Customers aren’t the only ones checking out your brand on top review sites, either.

More than half of job-seekers — 53%, to be exact — look for additional company information after reading a job post. And 83% of job seekers will research a company’s ratings and reviews online, reading an average of 6 reviews before deciding what they think of the company.

Keep this in mind, too: 64% of consumers will stop buying from a brand after learning that the company treats employees poorly. It doesn’t matter if the former employee made false statements about their time at the company — consumers will judge based on what they hear without digging deeper to find out if it’s true.

This is why it’s so important to carefully monitor your online reviews as part of reputation management. When an employee leaves a company — or even, in some cases, still works for a company — they’ll often go online to air their grievances. 

Everything from honest feedback to false statements can live on review sites. Many top prospects may be deterred after researching your company and seeing an ex-employee talking negatively about the management. If you’re not on top of what’s being said, the reputational damage could snowball without you even realizing it.

Our content removal experts will analyze search engine results to find and remove your personal information online. Call us at 866-601-6803 for more information.

Regularly Send Satisfaction Surveys for a Better Understanding of the Customer Experience

One of the best things you can do for reputation management, apart from generating reviews, is to gain a general sense of how your customers feel. After a purchase is made, make it a practice to email a customer satisfaction survey to the customer.

While many will not offer any feedback, some will. What you gather through satisfaction surveys is representative of your customer base overall, and you can determine where changes need to be made to improve the customer experience.

Surveys are often more beneficial to companies than online reviews because they’re not public. You can read the feedback and take action without worrying about negative information and false statements causing reputational damage to your business.

Address Negative Search Results

One of the most damaging types of content that can appear online is a mugshot. When it comes to your brand, a mugshot of anyone connected to the company can wreak havoc, whether that’s the business owner or an entry-level employee. 

Even if charges were dropped or the situation happened several years ago, mugshots have a way of showing up prominently in search results. This can put your business in a bad light. Customers and potential employees will make assumptions about the brand and who works for it without having any context. This type of first impression can erode trust and lead to missed opportunities.

Luckily, there are various routes you can take to remove or suppress this type of content online. From content suppression using search engine optimization methods to taking legal action if court records have been sealed or expunged, you don’t have to suffer indefinitely. 

Consider working with a reputable mugshot removal company that will get rid of the harmful search results and help you bounce back from reputation damage. 

Final Thoughts About Repairing Reputational Damage

Fixing a bad reputation won’t happen overnight. However, you can counteract reputation damage through consistent and intentional effort. Hiring the right people, paying attention to online reviews and staying proactive about managing customer feedback shows the public (and search engines) that your brand is reliable and trustworthy.

If you or your business is struggling with negative information online, including false reviews, outdated information or even criminal records that have resurfaced, you don’t have to deal with it alone. Professional reputation management services can help get rid of harmful material online so you can create the digital presence you deserve. 

Even if you’re a public figure because of your business, you may want to lead life as a private individual when it comes to personal mistakes you’ve already paid for. The last thing you want is your mugshot circulating on Google or social media, leading to reputational damage for you and your business.

Take the first step today to a better understanding of your online presence and fixing reputational damage.

Are you ready for a clean slate? Get in touch with us at 866-601-6803 to learn more about how we can help.

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